Formalistic Approach
〔呂按：formalist
就可以當形容
詞。〕
英三A 96121182 辛亞蓓
英三B 96121221 林莉穎
英三B 96121223 陳品璇
英三C 96121303 薛方瑋
outline
• Introduction to formalistic approach
• The process of analysis
• Background
• Constants
• Practice 1. ”To His Coy Mistress ”
2. Hamlet
3. Young Goodman Brown
4. Everyday Use
Introduction to The Formalist
Approach
英三B 林莉穎
Introduction
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears;
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
The process of analysis
Let us look at the words and the sentences, and
let us be alert.
(almost simultaneously look for structural
relationships and patterns)
〔呂按：標題的T既然大寫，其餘首字母當然也大寫。〕
The process of analysis
• structure • symbols
• shape • repeated details
• interplay and • climax
interrelationships • denouement
• denotations and • balances and tension
connotations • rhythms
• contexts • sounds
• images
Background
• Plato – dialectic
• Aristotle – Poetics
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Romantic movement) –
dynamic imagination
• To be called the New Criticism (the first two-thirds
of the 20 century)
〔呂按：“To be called” 這三個字看不出有何意義。〕
Constants of the Formalist
Approach
英三A 辛亞蓓
Constants of the Formalist Approach
• In the past, form was used to mean external form.
For example, a heroic couplet with a rhyming couplet
of iambic pentameter.
• The notion of organic form can be compared to the
world, in which everything interacts with each other,
is organic.
Constants of the Formalist Approach
• Readers should find what really mean inside
or outside the word. For example, whether
there is an image taking on meaning beyond
itself.
• Texture: embodies meaning, imagery, and
metaphor.
〔呂按：“Texture” 後面多出冒號就不是正確的句子了。〕
Constants of the Formalist Approach
• In the intentional fallacy, readers make the mistake
of not divorcing the literary work from the intention
that the author might have had for the work.
• Also, the affective fallacy can cause emotional effect
on the reader.
• A literary work cannot be seen the same as the
original one after being translated into another genre.
Constants of the Formalist Approach
• The speaker’s voice and the way he speaks, helps the
reader understand more, set a context and a set of
circumstances.
• The form of the work can be conditioned by the
point of view to which the author limits the narrator.
Constants of the Formalist Approach
• Tension, the resolution of opposites, in a piece of
literature can be compared to the principle of an
arch.
• Tension: irony and paradox.
Ex. The conflict between the abstract and the concrete.
〔呂按：“ex.”是 “example 的縮寫， “for example”
的縮寫是拉丁文 “e.g.” ，我已糾正過台灣學生以訛
傳訛的錯誤寫法，以後不要再犯了。〕
Practice
• “To His Coy Mistress”– 隱喻 (words and images)、
thematic pattern
• Young Goodman Brown – 多種解釋
• Hamlet – 辯證法的形式
• Everyday Use – 反諷法 (irony)
〔呂按：背景太花了，喧賓奪主，效果反而不好。〕
“To his Coy Mistress”
by Andrew Marvell
英三B 陳品璇
“To His Coy Mistress”
•主題：
人生短苦，應把握當下，及時行樂
-- space & time motif
-- sexual motif
• 呈現主題的特色：
-- “…how a particular set of images can
open out to themes in the way just
described.”
-- 假設法
• Space Motif
(stanza 1)
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way 〔呂按：用示例舉隅的
To walk, and pass our long love's day; 方式即可，因為一來沒
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side 有足夠的時間全部提示，
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would 徒然浪費投影片，二來
Love you ten years before the Flood; 字體太小又太密，投影
And you should, if you please, refuse 片無法花揮作用。比較
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow 恰當的作法或許是分
Vaster than empires, and more slow. “space motiof” 、
An hundred years should go to praise “time motif”和
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast, “space-time motif”三個
But thirty thousand to the rest; 子題，各引幾行詩說
An age at least to every part, 明。 。〕
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
• Space & Time Motif
(stanza 2)
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
• Space & Time Motif
(stanza 3)
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
•Time Motif
(stanza 1)
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
• Time Motif
(stanza 3)
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
•Time Motif
(stanza 2)
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
• Time Motif
補充 : 藉由舊約時代的故事，將時間倒轉。
〔呂按：既已介紹詩中的時空母題，這張投影片應該做
個總結，是概括性綜合前面幾頁的介紹，而不是以特定
的典故意象「補充」。就算要補充說明，也是應該以
“time-space motif” 為主。〕
•Sexual Motif
(stanza 1)
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
•Sexual Motif
(stanza 2)
But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
•Sexual Motif
(stanza 3) 〔呂按：既然介紹另一
個 thematic motif，也
Now therefore, while the youthful hue 應該以文字重點提示這
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires 方面的結論。〕
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Hamlet
by Shakespeare
英三B 陳品璇
Hamlet
• 主題：
“…people who are trapped in their own
questions.”
• 呈現主題的特色：
辯證
-- Cosmological Trap
-- “Seeming” and “Being”
-- “Seeing” and “Knowing”
辯證
不同對立觀點的邏輯辯論，進而推
論出一個統一結果或真理。
辯證之於Hamlet
辯證： 對立觀點 兩難的困境 (trap)
The Cosmological Trap
HAMLET. Denmark’s a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ. Then is the world
one.
HAMLET. A goodly one; in which
there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being the one o’ th’
worst. (scene 2, Act 2)
〔呂按： “scene”首字母應大寫。〕
The Cosmological Trap
• 辯證形式：劇中的問題 (questions)
越來越複雜。
(Questions vs. Answers)
(Dialogue vs. soliloquy)
• 提問主題：
Denmark vs. Cosmos
Man vs. Nature
“Seeming” and “Being”
• 主旨： 〔呂按：中文破折
-- 表象與真相 號應該用全形，
“scene”首字母應
丹麥大多數的人與哈姆雷特 大寫， “Paradox”
-- Paradox of man 首字母沒理由大
“...one may smile and smile, and 寫。〕
be a villain....” (scene 1, Act 5)
• 劇中呈現手法：
Hamlet 與他人的對話大部分是
「話中有話」
“Seeing” and “Knowing”
•主旨：
看到與明白
--人們的意圖與他之後行為的結果有
一段差距。
--“Our thoughts are ours, their ends
none of our own.” (scene 3, Act 2)
• 劇中呈現：
Hamlet 雖然看到丹麥的腐化並且計畫
要將一切歸正，但是他沒有預料到劇
中的結局。
Young Goodman Brown
by Hawthorne
英三C 薛方瑋
Young Goodman Brown
一種形式多種解釋
• The light and the dark
• The pink (between red and white)
-- passion? innocent? good?
-- evil? hypocrisy?
• ambiguity
Young Goodman Brown
• 1. Virtues and Vices
-- the Puritan setting: traditional Christian
concept
Ex. Goodman Brown loses his faith.
〔呂按：“ex.”是 “example 的縮寫， “for example” 的縮寫
是拉丁文 “e.g.” ，我已糾正過台灣學生以訛傳訛的錯誤寫法，
以後不要再犯了。〕
Young Goodman Brown
-- 3 virtues: faith, love, hope.
(Faith: the first of the 3 virtues. )
-- 3 vices: doubt, despair, hatred.
Young Goodman Brown
• 2. Symbol or Allegory?
• allegory: an idea or concept in a direct, one-
to-one relationship. No ambiguity exists at this
level.
• Faith = faith
Young Goodman Brown
• Symbol: A literary symbol is a symbol that has
a possibility of multiple interpretations. The
interpretation of a literary symbol is
determined by the way the symbol is used in
the text.
• likelihood / probability
Young Goodman Brown
“faith”
-- allegory:
Faith is faith? Faith remains with him?
-- symbol:
Goodman Brown → Everyman Brown
Young Goodman Brown
• 3. Loss upon Loss
doubt→ lose faith, love, hope → despair
(Faith is still aside him.)
Everyday Use
by Alice Walker
英三C 薛方瑋
Everyday Use
• Subtitle “for your grandmamma”
-- a “real” grandmother
-- a kind of generic grandmother
• Setting
-- a mother and two sisters
-- a report from the mother?
Everyday Use
• Family and culture conflict
-- The mother and Maggie
-- Dee and her friend
-- the lived culture of the mother
-- Dee’s college-oriented culture
〔呂按：標題應使用斜體。〕
Everyday Use
Irony
• The quilts
• The names: Maggie and Dee
• The education
Limitation
of Formalistic Approach
〔呂按：formalist 就可以當形容詞。〕
英三C 薛方瑋
Limitations
• Formalist approach 須逐字分析作品。
• 適用：詩（如詩的格律、音節等等）
• 小說和戲劇篇幅長，難以發揮效果。
Limitations
• 詩的種類
-- intensive: 詩意主題
（如抒情詩）
-- extensive: 帶有強烈的歷史或傳記背景
（如史詩）
Bibliography
﹝1﹞張亞娟. 再論哈姆雷特延宕之根源：人文主義的歷史局
限性. 《科教文化》(2009.4月)
﹝2﹞張玲玲.《哈姆雷特》悲劇性之我見 《安徽文學》(2009.
第4期)
﹝3﹞張雪芹. 把握現在，釋放自我 —— 論英國文藝復興時期
詩歌中的 「及時行樂」 主題. 《新西部》(2007, 第16期)
﹝4﹞孫樹芳. 激情與理智的完美結合 ──《至他嬌羞的女友》
解讀 《許昌學院學報》(2009.3月)
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. p. 112. line
18~19
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. p. 130. line
16~17
〔呂按：如有具體引用他人著作，則列出「引用書目」，為的是表
示負責和尊重他人研究成果，並方便查核。妳們列的是「參考書
目」，參考書目並無學術上的意義或價值。格式也不符規定，請參
考 GardenVista的作業觀摩或相關專欄的文章。〕